Hurricane Lala

Similar Stochastic Events | Summary
Posting Date: August 17, 2026, 11:00:00 AM

Hurricane Lala approached Hawaii's Big Island this past weekend, becoming only the fifth hurricane since 1957 to pass within 70 miles of the Big Island, according to NOAA's historical database. Lala made its closest approach to the Big Island late Saturday evening as a hurricane, with its eyewall brushing the south side of the island around 5 p.m. HST — the storm never made an official landfall on Hawaii, though major impacts were still felt. The storm then weakened, with the National Weather Service downgrading it to a tropical storm on Sunday after making what amounted to a direct hit on the Big Island as a Category 1 hurricane. By Sunday afternoon, Lala had sustained top winds of 70 mph and was moving northwest at about 15 mph, with its center located about 195 miles west of Honolulu, moving west-northwest at 20 mph. Impacts spread progressively westward across the island chain — from Maui toward Honolulu and then Kauai — with a Tropical Storm Warning in effect for Kauai County even as it was canceled elsewhere in the state. Rainfall totals were extreme: forecasters expected nearly three feet of rain on the Big Island's higher windward slopes, with some outlooks projecting storm totals of 30 to 40 inches over the windward Big Island, and Hawaii's governor noting 28 inches of rain in some areas. Forecasters expect Lala to regain hurricane strength again by midweek once it moves well west of the island chain.

ALERT™ subscribers can download similar stochastic event (SSE) IDs for Hurricane Lala’s impacts in Hawaii from the Downloads tab of this posting on the ALERT website. Compatible with Touchstone® and Touchstone Re™, the SSEs were selected based on the event’s track, minimum central pressure, estimated winds, forward speed, and approach angle. They should only be used with exposures in Hawaii.

The storm brought severe flooding, water rescues, and structural damage to the Big Island. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said 100 or more homes on the southern part of the Big Island were either destroyed or damaged, and numerous water rescues were performed, including an elderly woman pulled from a tree after her house was swept away by floodwater. While Green said it appeared no one died as a direct result of the storm, a fatal car accident occurred on the Big Island during Lala's closest approach, though officials were still investigating whether it was storm-related. Heavy rain saturated the ground and raised fears of landslides — Green warned that with 28 inches of rain, there would be "a ton of landslides" — a particular concern given that up to 35 inches of rain could loosen steep slopes where some of the Big Island's roughly 210,000 residents live off the grid in improvised housing. Flooding was severe enough to send rivers into raging torrents, with visible impacts like rising water levels at the Wainaku Street Bridge in Hilo and a downed utility pole dangling over Mamalahoa Highway near Ocean View. Ahead of the storm, shelters were opened, events were canceled, and ranchers were urged to prepare, while high surf and tropical storm conditions continued spreading westward across Maui, Oahu, and Kauai as Lala moved on.

No additional ALERT postings are planned for this event. Please contact your Verisk representative with any questions.

Similar Stochastic Events | Downloads
Posting Date: August 17, 2026, 11:00:00 AM

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Similar Stochastic Event IDs

Note: These lists give event IDs taken from our stochastic catalog that have similar characteristics as Hurricane Lala's approach to the big island of Hawaii.

Product	File Type	Description	Download
TOUCHSTONE / Re	Excel (xls)	Selected set of stochastic events, with Readme in Excel format
TOUCHSTONE / Re	CSV (csv)	Selected set of stochastic events, formatted for import into Touchstone/Re